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Italy: ‘From P2 to P3: Thirty Years of Politics and Business’ (Book Review)

By PM| LaVoce | August 20, 2010 (Google translation edited by A. Constantine) P3 featured in a book about Berlusconi and the Freemasons to be r

By PM| LaVoce | August 20, 2010

(Google translation edited by A. Constantine)

P3 featured in a book about Berlusconi and the Freemasons to be released this autumn: From P2 to P3: thirty years of politics and business

Silvio Berlusconi

Milan - A new book by Marco Marsili will be released this autumn, entitled From P2 to P3: thirty years' of politics and business. The book discusses the history of P2 and its affiliates, these intertwined with services behind the state stragismo (fruit of the strategy of tensions East-West), the Red Brigade that kidnapped Aldo Moro, relations between business, politics, the Mafia, freemasonry, and the Vatican from "Only Plan" to the Borghese coup, the crack in Banco Ambrosiano, the death of Roberto Calvi, Michele Sindona, the band Magliana, Opus Dei, Tangentopoli, the Mitrokhin dossier, and subsequent events related to the characters of Licio Gelli's secret lodge. Stories of a dark Italy intertwine, and often cross the path of Silvio Berlusconi and his allies.

Marco Marsili graduated with degrees in political science and international relations and communication and society with the highest ratings and praise. He is a journalist and professor of journalism and media at the University of Insubria in Varese.

Marsili's book is due out in the fall from Sun City. The book is not another rehash of the P2 history and of its members, but seeks to trace how members of the secret lodge that Worshipful Master Licio Gelli called 'the Establishment' have survived the scandal of the year ' 80, how that have found employment, assistance and protection in the shadow of Silvio Berlusconi's empire. Berlusconi made his way as an entrepreneur, first as a manufacturer, then as an editor, then a politician, ending up finally in control of almost everything - starting from the period of maximum expansion of Gelli's lodge.

What is the connection of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi?

After early occasional work in his youth as a singer and entertainer on cruise ships with his friend Fedele Confalonieri, and door to door seller of electric brooms with his friend Guido May, Berlusconi began the task of estate agent, thanks to an anonymous patron - and a lot of money from mysterious Swiss financial trust with ties to Opus Dei and the Vatican.

The Knight, however, encountered many difficulties, until he finds P2, Sindona and Calvi, who launder money through the Bank of Cosa Nostra Rasin of Milan. The bank's director general was the father of future prime minister.

In this whirlwind monetary tour are interwoven the stories of Paul Marcinkus, the IOR and the failure of Banco Ambrosiano after investments in offshore trusts, to the establishment of the first company by Berlusconi, San Martin Real Estate, administered by Marcello, who was embedded with the Mafia, managed the villa in Arcore purchased by Cesare Previti - old friends linked by common business and unspeakable secrets.

P2 was dissolved in 1981, and secret societies were prohibited by law the following year.

After the political storm that followed the discovery of the Castiglion Fibocchi lists, there was a sort of temporary purging of lodge members, facilitated by the desire of brethren to avoid the spotlight. Many ... were overshadowed by more prominent positions, or stood aside and to come back some time later.

Despite the lodge's dissolution, ruled by Law 25 January 1982, No 17, P2 is still active, at least many of its components. The lodge brothers who held public office disappeared from the limelight for some time in the limelight. Their reappearance coincided with the descent into the field of Berlusconi and the founding of Forza Italy, Berlusconi's political party.

Meanwhile, they have been kept afloat by a network of solidarity reminiscent of Odessa, the secret organization founded after the Second World War to protect Nazis. Some found work with Mediaset (the director of Channel 5; Massimo Donelli, Maurizio Costanzo, Robert Gervasi, Fabrizio Gelli ... the producer Angelo Rizzoli whose wife is Parliamentary PDL), others by Mondadori (Paul Moscow); others in positions of state or parastatal political appointment. Not all former members, of course, occupy prominent positions, but they have climbed the slope, aided by more fortunate "brothers." Prosecutors investigating the Capitol on the intertwining of politics, mafia, businessmen and the judiciary, involving leading politicians, has dubbed the phenomenon "New P2."

Those who have had a chance to preview the book describe the content as "highly explosive". Who knows the contribution it will make to fueling political controversy in view of the forthcming legislative elections?